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Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. IV - Page 62« Previous | Next »

(Testimony of Paul Morgan Stombaugh)

Mr. Stombaugh.
And from the root, extending out and growing, is the shaft of the hair, and the very distal end of that is the tip.
If we were to take this hair and place it under a microscope, this is what we would see. We find that the hair basically consists, in the shaft area, of scales composing the outside portion of the hair. Directly under the scales is the cortex. Now the scales vary in size and shape among animal and human hairs. The cortex also varies. Running through the center of the hair shaft, much as the lead in the center of a lead pencil, is what is known as the medulla.
The medulla is nothing more than air cells running through the center of the hairshaft.
In the cortex of the hair are small granules which appear under a microscope like tiny grains of sand. These are known as the hair pigment. This is the part of the hair that gives the hair its color, whether it is blond, dark brown, black, or what-have-you
Also present in the cortex you will occasionally find, air spaces located among the pigment granules which are known as cortical fusi. These will vary in size, shape, form, and location on the hair. Many hairs do not have any. Basically that is what a hair looks like, and the basic component parts of the hair.
Mr. Eisenberg.
May I have this admitted as 666, this diagram of the hair?
The Chairman.
Yes; it may be admitted.
(Commission Exhibit No. 666 was marked, and received in evidence.)
Mr. Stombaugh.
Now, keeping the diagram of the hair on the side where we can refer to it, our first differentiation in the hair, of course, would be separating the human from the animal hairs. These are photomicrographs of human hairs which I took through a microscope.
Here are the animal hairs.
The first thing we look for, of course, would be the color, length, and texture of the hair. This comes from experience from looking at thousands of hairs, and we can usually pick one up and tell by the naked eye whether it is animal or human.
Mr. Eisenberg.
Pardon me. You are referring to a chart which has on the upper right, "Human Hairs" and on the upper left, "Animal Hairs" as captions?
Mr. Stombaugh.
That is correct.
However, when we place these hairs under a microscope we find that animal hairs vary from human hairs in many different aspects.
One, the medullary structure. In animal hair the medullary structure is much wider than that in a human hair. You will find that it exceeds more than one-third of the width of the hair shaft.
Secondly, the shape of the medulla, as in this rabbit hair, varies greatly. You can see the individual medullary cells very distinctly. In this chart I have some photographs of human hairs in which a medulla is not present. But the medulla in a human hair would look just about like this, very thin.
We move down to the pigmentation of the hair, which is located in the cortex. In the human hair the pigmentation is very fine and granular, and in this animal hair it is very coarse and elongated.
The size and shape of a root on the animal hair differs from the size and shape of the root in the human hair. Here we see the root of a dog hair which is very long and very thin. The root of a human hair is more or less shaped similar to a light bulb. The scales of animal hairs are very large. The scales of the human hairs are much smaller.
Mr. Eisenberg.
Mr. Chairman, may I have this chart which the witness has been using introduced as 667?
The Chairman.
It may be admitted.
(The chart referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 667, and received in evidence.)
Mr. Eisenberg.
You are looking at a new chart called "Racial Determination of Hairs" with the subcaption "General Appearance of Shaft"?
Mr. Stombaugh.
That is correct.
Once we have separated the animal hairs from the human hairs, our next problem ,is determining the race of the individual from whom the particular human hairs in which we are interested originated.
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